BRAKE ROTORS ORDERED FOR SPRINTER AFTER TESTS

north county 
Transit officials said Tuesday that they have ordered a full set of replacement brake rotors for the idled Sprinter trains, adding that the repair process is “moving swiftly and efficiently.”

The North County Transit District shut down the Oceanside-to-Escondido Sprinter system starting March 9, after it discovered accelerated wear on all 12 trains’ brake rotors.

Officials from the agency said the full set of brake parts should arrive by late April. At that point, they hope to announce a Sprinter “relaunch” date.

They initially estimated that the network would be offline for two to four months.

On Sunday, the agency conducted a successful test run on one Sprinter train between Escondido and San Marcos, a transit spokeswoman said. That followed the installation of a limited supply of 100g replacement rotors.

Test runs were expected to continue through today.

Officials had expected to order the full set of replacement brake parts in May, according to a news release from the transit district.

Despite several requests, the agency has not provided cost figures for either the limited or full set of replacement rotors.

The transit agency has said that it ordered two limited sets of replacement rotors for testing and would determine which was the best to use. Frances Schnall, a transit district spokeswoman, said Wednesday that the agency went ahead with a full order from Kovis, a Slovenia-based rail parts maker, because its rotors “performed so well” in testing.

The Kovis order includes rotors for all Sprinter trains, plus spares. Altogether, the agency expects to receive 96 rotors to outfit the trains and 34 spares.

Schnall said the agency won’t cancel its second order of a limited number of solid rotors, made by Faiveley Transport of France. It will keep those on hand once they arrive, she said.